What is social change exactly? More importantly, how can it actually happen? “We don’t have a narrow definition; we work with individual students to help them realize the skills they have that will allow them to interact with an issue they want to change in order to make the world a better place,” said Judy Harvey, director of Interdisciplinary Leadership for Social Change.
Susan J. Popkin works towards the mission statement of the Urban Institute: “to promote sound social policy and public debate on national priorities, the Urban Institute gathers and analyzes data, conducts policy research, evaluates programs and services, and educates Americans on critical issues and trends.”
“It’s officially a non-partisan think tank, although anyone you talk to in D.C. knows we’re on the left,” Popkin said during her hour-long lecture on April 17 in Bryan Jr. Auditorium.
Harvey brought her to Guilford as a speaker exemplifying social change through research.
“Sometimes people think social change is only about protests and boycotts – I wanted to show students that they can combine their strong social concerns with their academic skills,” Harvey said.
Popkin spoke about her work with metropolitan housing and communities. She started with the Gautreaux project. A court case argued that the Chicago Housing Authority only built public housing in areas with high concentration of African Americans, forming isolated areas of poverty.
The Gautreaux project gave housing vouchers to African Americans living in these areas to move to suburbs. Popkin believes vouchers provide the best solution for de-segregating housing and increasing the standard of living in public housing.
“With vouchers people can live in fair market rent apartments but the problem is the waiting list,” Popkin said. “A third of the people who qualify actually get to move. It’s not an entitlement like food stamps.”
Think tanks not only conduct research, but many serve as centers of advocacy.
“Last summer I interned with the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials and we mainly focused on educating congressional staffers about housing issues and lobbied for legislation,” said junior Jasmine Ashton, who attended the lecture.
“One of my first assignments was to call every congressperson and ask them to identify their contact for housing issues,” Ashton said. Most of them had to look it up and sometimes realized that they were responsible for housing – it was that low on their priority list.”
Working for social change can be disheartening, but Popkin stays hopeful and encourages students to apply for internships at the Urban Institute. There are always social changes to be made.
“I’ve been doing this long enough to see that things go through cycles,” Popkin said. “If a policy fails it just means there will be another effort.